Anne Hathaway
By Carol Ann Duffy
Responding to attitudes, ideas and feelings
1. Do you think Anne focuses on the bed when remembering her marriage because:
a. She loved their physical closeness in bed?
b. That was where they could share thoughts?
c. She is very angry to be left only the second best bed?
d. That’s where she felt most mismatched with Shakespeare?
Find evidence to help you decide if each is true/partly true/not true.
(For example: ‘kisses on these lips’ in lines 4-5 and ‘his touch’ in line 6 does suggest
their physical closeness in bed.)
2. Anne speaks of ‘Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste’ in lines 910. This suggests that there was drama or excitement in their romantic relationship,
and also that all her senses were stimulated. Find any other words or phrases that
suggest Anne thought her husband a good lover.
3. ‘I dreamed he’d written me’ (line 8). Could this mean:
a. She felt like a character in one of his plays
b. She felt dependent upon him
c. She was prone to nightmares
d. He gave her life meaning?
Which of the above seem likely? Why do you think so?
What other phrases remind us that Shakespeare was a writer and poet?
4. Shakespeare is famous for the power of his imagination, the way he paints vivid
pictures with words. Duffy shows us this when she writes of the ‘spinning world’ (line
1) of forests and castles that his words could create. She also writes that he could
‘dive for pearls’ (line 3) or, in other words, create images of rare value and beauty
through his language.
Can you find any other examples where Duffy shows us Shakespeare’s imaginative
power?
5. Duffy is clearly a fan of Shakespeare – look at what she has Anne say about him!
Maybe so, but she’s a bigger fan of Anne whom she presents as his perfect partner.
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How do you react to these statements?
Is Shakespeare presented in a totally positive way?
Do we learn anything about Anne herself?
6. Although Anne seems to remember her husband in very positive ways, there are hints
that they did not have any equal relationships. For example, she says that she felt
herself his ‘echo’ (line 6), which suggests that she repeated or reflected his thoughts,
not her own.
Can you find any other phrases that suggest a lack of equality between them?
Anne Hathaway/Carol Ann Duffy
1
Exploring language, structure and form
1. Make a list of the words and phrases in the poem which are associated with poetry,
writing or grammar. (For example, the word ‘rhyme’ is normally related to poetry).
Place them under the following headings:
Words about her
Words about him
Words about other people
Softer rhyme
Do these words tell us anything about:
 Whether Anne or her husband had the stronger personality?
 How their guests’ lives compared with their own?
2. This poem is in the form of a sonnet. Read the following statements about sonnets
and say whether they are true of this poem.
 Sonnets are usually love poems
 Sonnets have fourteen lines
 Sonnets usually have a regular metre
 The final couplet often states the theme or message of the sonnet.
Exploring meanings and responses
1. ‘I give unto my wife my second best bed’ (from Shakespeare’s will)
Read the note in Explanation on this. Find evidence in the poem that shows whether
the following are true or not. Copy and complete the chart below.
The poem Anne Hathaway ….
True/not true
Describes a ‘second-best’ marriage
Is about what happened in the bed
Describes a marriage that was
much better than the bed
Shows us the quality of the bed
does not affect the quality of the
marriage
Anne Hathaway/Carol Ann Duffy
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Evidence